Women Swimmers and Divers Dominate UNM, NAU

ALBUQUERQUE -- The BYU women’s swim team continues to be perfect with another win under it’s belt, defeating conference opponent, New Mexico (211.50-88.50) and also Northern Arizona University (177.50-122.50), the Cougars improve their record to (2-0).

“We swam well against two very good teams,” said BYU head coach Tim Powers. “It was not an easy win, they were good competition and we are happy with the outcome.”

BYU won 12 out of 16 events, seven of those wins coming from underclassmen. Freshmen Amy Xu and Candice Smith set the pace, picking up two wins apiece.

Xu swam season-best times in both the 200 free (1:52.79) and the 500 free (5:06.26), while Smith won both the 100 and 200 back with times of 57.60 and 2:04.25, respectively.

Other underclassmen winners included freshman Jodie Ellis who won the 200 fly with a time of 2:06.86, sophomore Aleesha Miller who won the 50 free (23.47) and sophomore Rachel Grant who won the 400 IM (4:27.95).

The rest of the BYU wins came from juniors Natasha Menezes in the 1000 free (10:24.79), Tawni Jones in 1-meter diving (299.80), Kirsty Ferrell in the 100 fly (57.11) and Junior Ava Jackman won the 3-meter diving competition with a score of 264.25.

The 400 free relay team of Ferrell, senior Leilani Roberts, Miller and Menezes topped off the meet beating NAU and UNM by four and eight seconds, respectively (3:27.21).

UNM was also defeated by NAU with a score of 177-123.

The women and the men will be together again to compete against various teams within and without the conference in the Lincoln Shootout Saturday at Long Beach, Calif.